Main Task: Double Page Spread Textual Analysis

-Denotation: A double page spread magazine page of man with black hair who dominates the whole spread as he's placed on the left of the page. The man seems to be on a stage as he's firmly holding onto the mic stand with his head down facing towards the ground this connotes that he hasn't started to perform yet and is just about to flick his hair and begin to sing. This double page spread also includes three little boxed images of what portrays to be band members on the bottom right of the spread and one box on the left page.

-Connotation: A band, singing and playing gauitar to an audience. Handling business in the studio.

Mise en scene

Costume: The image of the dominant man on the left hand side of the double page spread is casually dressed in full black. Jeans and Jeans jacket and plain black t-shirt. He looks like he could be in a rock band.

Props: The props used in all four images are a mic and stand, guitar and what seems to be in the middle image is a studio equalizer which connotes that they're in the studio.

NVC: The man that is on the left hand side of this double page spread's non-verbal communication portrays to be comfortable and in his zone as he is performing. In the smaller images below, the men look very focused and ready for business especially the image on the bottom right as it portrays the man to be connecting to his music as he sings.

Lighting: This double page spread has been done in black and white however there is a high key lighting for the dominant picture on the left hand side as it shows a light reflecting on him to make his image bright. The smaller images also have a high key lighting especially the bottom, end right as its background is white.

Setting: The double page spread picture shows that the images were set on a stage, this connotes the obvious that the spread is about music. The smaller images settings were in a studio however the one on the far left looks like it was set on the same stage as the dominant picture.

Anchor: The font is basic but bold which prints a good statement and gives easy impressions to the reader that this double page spread is about music. The colours 'red and white' which were used was very appropriate and not too over the top.

Magazine Conventions

Masthead: The masthead "We're being the best Mcr we can be!" is very distinctive as they mixed the writing with red and white and also refers to them trying to be the best which is shown in the images as they all show dedication to music, being in the studio recording, making decisions and having dicussions then performing their music.

Dateline: There isn't a date line on this double page spread, this connotes that there isn't a dealine date for its release.

Main Image: The main image of this double page spread is an image of a man that looks like he's in his early twenty's, he's perofming with a live band as you can see the drummer faintly in the background.

Cover-lines: The cover-line on this page states, "My chemical romance invite Keerang! To their recording studio". This connotes that the band MCR are being very open to the world to come and have a snoop around their business.

Main Task: Front Cover Texture Analysis

-Denotation:
This Hip Hop magazine has a picture of five male rappers that are directly looking into the camera, all of their faces are serious except one. The front cover is a long shot showing them all from head to toe. The background of this magazine front cover is very nutural with darker shades at the top which is 'grey'. This colour contrasts with what the men are wearing in the photo because they're all wearing dark colours. Behind two of the guys heads is the magazine masthead 'XXL' and infront of them bellow the waist are four cover-lines which are in white and yellow with the stroke of black giving the words boldness to allow it to pop out to the readers. The five rappers names are bellow the cover-line 'A new breed of hustlers featuring' in correct order of where they're standing/sitting in order to tell the readers who's who. the bar code is rotated but clearly placed on the bottom left corner.

-Connotation:
There's five men, they all look like rappers or represent the individual cover-line 'Hustlers'.

Mise en scene

Costume: They all have on dark colours which are blue denuim and black. They're all wearing shirts and one of them is wearing a jumper. These clothes are very casual maybe an everyday outfit for men. Three of them are wearing black baseball caps which seem to be new era hats, what americans are known to wear. Two of them are wearing flashy jewellery i.e. big diamond chains.

Props: The fact that this photograph is very basic and straight forward there arent many props just a few which are the chair that the guy in the middle, 'Nipsey Hussle' is sitting on which then allows the rest of the men to crowd around giving different levels of height. The second prop included in this photo is the wires on the floor which is indicating a mic to probably be attached to the end of it or wires of a dj set and speakers.

NVC: Their non-verbal communication is very strong and serious to make them look like hard as nails. One of them are smiling which portrays him to be the funny one out of the bunch but the rest of them are sending a non-verbal message to the readers that they're ready for business.

Lighting: The lighting in this magazine cover is low key as it's not very bright, infact it's kind of dull and dusty but it gives the effect of a grimey look.

Setting: The front cover of this magazine does not have a background as it is a two shaded colour. This may be due to the style they were trying to portray for this Hip Hop magazine.

Anchor: For this genre of this music magazine the font of the masthead and cover-lines that have been used go with the 'Hip Hop' genre. This was purposely done so that the readers immediately identify what type of magazine it is.

Magazine Conventions

Masthead: The 'XXL' masthead is pretty distinctive as it has a background colour of red with large, bold white writing. this is very effective. The masthead connotes a young and fresh hip hop magazine.

Dateline: The dateline on the front cover of this magazine writes, "April 2010" which connotes that the release date was for that month.

Main Image: The main image on this magazine front cover is shared by five successful American hip hop rappers, J. Cole left end, Pill right of J. Cole, Nipsey Hussle sitting in the chair, Wiz Khalifa the right of Nipsey Hussle and Oj Da Juiceman on the right end. They are placed to represent gangsters with the clothing and the body postures. They all look confident.

Cover-lines: The cover line that says, "A new breed of hustlers" represents the new generation of hip hop. This connotes that the old hustlers/ hip hop artists' are old news and they should now be looking into the new and improved 'hustlers'.

Main Cover-line: The main cover-line links to the image, which says '10 freshmen for 10'. This is refering to the image although there are five men who are on the front cover but its showing thats the first five who are the new up and coming rappers for 2010.

Selling line: The selling line is 'Hip Hop on a higher level' which indicates to hip hop fans that the normal standard of hip hop has just been raised by the guys on the front cover. The selling line is very short but it drags the reader into wanting to know how and when this has happened.

Website link: The website link is 'xxlmag.com' it is placed on the bottom of the bar code. The connotation of the website link is for people to be able to go onto the site to further their knowledge on behalf of hip hop and the new hustlers in town.

Target audience: I think the target audience is for the ages between 13-30 depending on the level of hip hop interest. This magazine applies to both genders but more over to boys/man as the magazine is male dominated considering the photo is of men and they're talking about hustlers and not ladies.

Main Task: Introduction

My name is Shadean Murray Wilson, I'm a student at Christ The King Sixthform, its my first year and i am studying, AS Media, AS English Language, AS Sociology and AS Performance Studies. This week I will begin my project to produce a music magazine which will include a front cover, contents page and a double paged spread. I have chosen to create a Hip-Hop and RnB magazine because the target age varies and i want my magazine to draw the attention 0f all ages. My target is to create an interesting, eye capturing magazine with enough information for the reader to want to continue reading on.

Preliminary Task: Front Cover & Contents Page Mock Ups